Ingest conversations from Intercom into BuildBetter for product insights, signal extraction, and live Topics tracking. Intercom data is searchable across BuildBetter chat and documents, and powers reports and workflows alongside calls, Slack, and other feedback sources. Intercom is one of two primary sources for the Topics experience (alongside Slack). New and updated Intercom conversations stream into Topics in real time so recurring issues, requests, and complaints group automatically as they happen.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.buildbetter.ai/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Topics-First Ingestion
When Topics is enabled, BuildBetter prioritizes open Intercom conversations — the ones that still need a team response — for live ingestion. Closed conversations backfill on setup.- Open conversations first — live updates to active conversations drive Topic creation, matching, and stale detection
- Closed conversation backfill — historical conversations are pulled in on initial setup to seed Topics with prior context
- Conversation subject as channel context — Intercom conversation subjects and metadata are passed to the Topic classifier as
channelContext, sharpening topic naming and matching confidence
Setup Guide
Generate an Intercom API key
In your Intercom workspace, create an access token with permission to read conversations and contacts.
Connect in BuildBetter
Navigate to Settings → Integrations and find the Intercom integration.
Enter your credentials
Paste your Intercom API key and configure shareability and visibility settings.
Bulk historical ingestionIf you need a one-time retroactive import beyond what’s covered by automatic backfill, email support@buildbetter.app and we’ll run a bulk import over your historical Intercom data.
Settings & Options
Fetch conversations on close
Fetch conversations on close
Pull conversations into BuildBetter when they’re closed in Intercom.Default: Enabled
Fetch conversations on tag creation
Fetch conversations on tag creation
Pull a conversation when a selected tag is attached to one of its messages.Default: Disabled
Update open conversations every X days
Update open conversations every X days
Refresh open or reopened conversations on a rolling cadence. Set to
0 to disable automatic refresh.Default: 0 daysReliability
Intercom ingestion is built to absorb provider hiccups without dropping data.- Resilient to outages — temporary Intercom outages no longer crash processing; ingestion resumes once Intercom recovers
- Event handling fixes — new conversations and replies are ingested more reliably, including edge cases around reopen events and rapid-fire updates
- Cursor and retry safety — billing-limited or interrupted imports no longer skip records or advance progress too early; partial syncs resume from the right place
What Gets Imported
| Data | Details |
|---|---|
| Conversations | Full thread with all messages and context |
| Messages | Individual messages with timestamps, author, and content |
| Authors | Contacts (customers) and admins (teammates) with email and avatar |
| Tags | Intercom tags are preserved for filtering and Topic context |
| Subjects & metadata | Used as channel context for Topic classification |
Use Cases
Live Topic Tracking
Connect Intercom to surface recurring customer themes in Triage → Topics the moment they emerge. Open conversations drive live updates; closed ones provide historical grounding.Signal Extraction
Run signals over Intercom conversations to extract feature requests, bugs, complaints, and praise. Results flow into the signals table alongside calls and other feedback sources.Product Feedback Loops
Connect Intercom support data to product decisions by routing extracted signals to projects, Linear issues, and customer-facing changelogs.Support
Need help with the Intercom integration?- Email: support@buildbetter.app
- Visit our Help Center